Extract of a memorandum entitled ‘The development of Union Native Policy since 1935’, 1950 Catalogue Ref: DO 35/ 4326
Photograph showing a South African Police officer checking the ‘dompas’ of a man. Such passes were used as a means of controlling the movement of the majority of South Africans within urban areas. According to apartheid ideology, Black people were only allowed to be in the cities and towns if they carried such pass books. This was part of the ‘Grand Apartheid’ scheme of ‘Influx Control’. Black workers were required to always carry their ‘dompas’ and were subject to spot checks. Date, unknown. © African Pictures: ref: APN754096, ANC Archives.
An article from the Daily Worker entitled ‘Africans & Indians to Unite’, 23 December 1951, Catalogue Ref: DO 35/3837
The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. At the time of this newspaper the African National Congress was a liberation movement founded to support rights for Black South Africans before the First World War. By 1948 it worked to oppose apartheid in South Africa through a Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws and other civil disobedience actions.
Extracts from booklet entitled ‘Apartheid: Racial Discrimination’ published on behalf of the Indian Government by the Foreign Relations Society of India, circa 1951, Catalogue Ref: DO 35/3837
The extract describes the terms of the law and comments on its legality.
The government later used the Suppression of Communism Act in December 1956 to arrest 156 individuals and charged them with high treason, beginning a five-year legal struggle.
Photographs showing official notices used in entrances for public buildings and photograph of man in a post office entitled ‘Apartheid at the Post Office Johannesburg’ from a booklet entitled ‘Apartheid: Racial Discrimination’ published on behalf of the Indian Government by the Foreign Relations Society of India, circa 1951, Catalogue Ref: DO 35/3837
Hawker: a person who travels about selling goods.
Extract from High Commissioner’s report concerning racial beach zoning in Durban, South Africa, October 1955, Catalogue Ref: DO 35/6716
Sign entitled ‘For use by White Persons’ designating the use of amenities during apartheid, (undated) Wikimedia Commons
According to the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, signs in English and Afrikaans were put up for ‘Europeans Only’ and ‘Non-Europeans Only’ with the aim of reducing contact between whites and other races.
Extract from the Separate Amenities Act, 5 October 1953, Catalogue Ref: DO 35/10560
The Separate Amenities Act 1953 enforced segregation for all public amenities, including buildings and transport. Segregation meant that whites (or Europeans) were given separate facilities than non-whites described as ‘Coloureds, Indians, and Blacks’. The act stated that facilities provided for different races need not be equal.
Map of South Africa. The Times Atlas of the Modern World. Volume IV. Southern Europe & Africa Mid-Century edition. The Times Publishing Company Ltd., Printing House Square, 1956
Basutoland gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966 and became the Kingdom of Lesotho. Bechuanaland Protectorate (established by the British in 1885 became the Republic of Botswana in 1966.
This map shows the ten bantustans in South Africa created by the Bantu Authorities Act 1951.
Extract from an internal memo from the Union to the High Commissioner, 19 May 1952 concerning removals from Johannesburg and Cape town, Catalogue Ref: DO 35/3260
Families in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, were given orders to leave their houses, and move to a new location in Meadowlands according to the later Native Resettlement Act 1954.